Meta

So much we've never tried, so many adventures to come!

PJ is knee deep in the obligatory toddler boy obsession with Thomas and Friends. My house is full of trains, shoes, books, clothes, and pillows plastered with Thomas’ face. And the movies – ohhhhhh, the endless plays of the movies!

And after the approximately fifty millionth time I had to sing the Thomas song, while also re-reading Order of the Phoenix and trying to tune out the workaholic Sir Topham Hatt, it occurred to me that James really IS vain but lots of fun. And then, well, THIS happened…

Share this:

Like this:

I think it’s time I start earning my keep. Well, not really, but there’s more than enough cute to go around and why should Mommy & Daddy get all the fun? So here I am, your Toddler For Hire!

Previous Experience:

Toddler @ {Name Redacted} Residence, PA
Sept 14 – Present

Responsibilities Included:

– Iced Tea Inspector. I can tell you with a high degree of certainty whether your iced tea is sodium deficient and correct the error by adding an appropriate (to me) number of salty chips. In the case of a total loss, I can throw the entire glass into your lap and make it look like you peed your pants. You’re welcome.

– Grocery Helper. Eggs make such a lovely crunching sound when they are thrown from a conveyor belt to the tile floor. Or at least I imagine they do, my last boss was a mean lady who stopped me from trying it.

– Cat Twirler. I grab their tails and hold on. Sometimes they pull me around the room, sometimes I pull them. We’re a team like that and it’s always fun – for me.

– Tight Space Explorer. Did you know that a 1.5 year old fits perfectly in the shelf under the TV where my Pooh bear player lives? Neither did Mommy.

Special Skills:

Communication: I conveniently warn you when I’m about to do something bad by telling myself “NOOOOOO.” Then I do it anyway. I said I communicate, not that I listen.

Horror Movie Sound Effects: I can scream like nobody’s business. Just ask the doggies next door.

Lovin: I give GREAT hugs. And kisses. Did you know Eskimos kiss with their noses? Mommy taught me that. She gives good hugs too. And she kisses my boo boos when I fall off stuff or into dry bathtubs. And she gives me yogurts and animal crackers and let’s me play puppy games on her phone.

Share this:

Like this:

Oh boy, I love Thanksgiving! My mommy and daddy taked me for a long ride in the car. I tried to sing my favorite “Up! Down!” song the whole way there,

but I sang myself right to sleep instead. When we got there, you’ll never guess who was there…NANA AND POP-POP! I was soooo excited to see them! And they had FOOD to share with me, oh boy!

This turkey stuff is…texture-y. I’m not sure how I feel about it. Oooooh, rolls! I show you what to do with them, Mommy!

My PopPop got a funny present – it’s a hat that sings!

He let me wear it, but I said “Noooooo thank you! Keep it over there!”

Mommy was mean and didn’t let me have none of her grown up grape juice, but Nana gived me all the apple juice I wanted. So THERE, mama!

Then we took another loooong car ride. This time, I didn’t feel like sleeping much, so I made Mommy play me all my favorite songs over and over (and over and over until Daddy said “No more!”)

When we got out of the car, we saw my Grandmom and my Grandpop’s! It was Grandpop’s birthday, but all I know how to sing is “Up! Down! Up!” so I sang him that and showed Mommy how to use a spoon. None of this one handed stuff, it’s only fun if you get real real messy!

Then we had to go home and go to bed. I stayed up real late talking to Bunny, and Michael, and Stinky. There was so much to tell them, I hope we have another Thanksgiving real soon!

Share this:

Like this:

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been struggling hard to keep up with my life and feeling this knot of doom hanging over me about the holidays coming up and how am I going to do it all, be everything that everyone needs me to be, and have enough of me to put out all the fires that keep popping up. It was exhausting. I haven’t been sleeping well, and having a hard time keeping myself from eating all the bad things!

Since I started PiYo, my morning workouts have been where I work through those emotional leftovers from the day before, but for the past two weeks I could barely drag myself out of bed for them and I just didn’t feel that “ahhhhhhhhhh” moment afterwards. My success partner, Lacy, and I made a commitment to post our sweaty selfies as a way to be accountable to each other and our clients. Here’s mine from Wednesday…

I took TEN and this was the best smile I could manage. I just wasn’t feeling it. I was too wrapped up in what I knew was coming in the rest of my day, and it wrecked my ability to make the most of my morning. I wasn’t wrong about my day, either. I have a recurring project that was assigned to me a couple of years ago that gives me a lot of anxiety because it’s pretty far outside of my strong skill set. I have begged and pleaded for reassignment with no luck. Meanwhile, it keeps growing and getting more complicated, and at one point on Wednesday I locked myself in my office, put my head down and cried like a baby because I felt like it would never end.

On Thursday, I didn’t even bother getting out of bed to work out. I was mentally and physically exhausted. I considered calling out, fantasized about quitting, and eventually dragged myself out the door and into the office. I listen to podcasts in the car, and happened to be listening to the Unpodcast that day. And Scott Stratten said something along the lines of “I don’t spend time working on my weaknesses. I think that just wastes time I could spend on getting great at my strengths.”

And I was like – WHOA. That’s exactly what I’ve been doing to myself. I’ve been feeling like there are so many things about me that I need to fix, that I need to work on, that I need to get better at, that I need to just manage, that I haven’t put any time into the things I’m GOOD at. No wonder I feel like crap about myself if all my energy is going into things I can barely scrape together and whose only role in my bigger plan is to eventually GO AWAY.

So I pushed the nightmare project off to the side, took care of the things that were on deadline, and spent the entire rest of my day on a project that I love and that I excel at. And you know what? It worked. It freaking worked! I rushed back from lunch to get back to it, and was almost late leaving for the day because I had to get one last thought down into my notes – which I brought home for the weekend because some of them can be reused for my coaching business.

When I got home, I had quality time with PJ and Paul, and I slept like a rock. I woke up this morning excited for my workout, and I nailed it. It was FUN again! Here’s today’s selfie:

On the FIRST try too. So I guess what I’m trying to say is, not that I won’t ever try to learn a new skill or get better about something I’m not good at, but I’m definitely going to be more guarded with my time to make sure that these things don’t take over my life again. Life lessons from (un)marketers for the win!

Share this:

Like this:

I confess, I’m something of a scatterbrain. I’m primarily an ideas person, and when it comes down to execution, I trip myself up on details all the time. Since I had PJ, I’ve been trying hard (really, really hard) to get myself trained to be better about managing my time and my environment because I don’t want him to grow up in chaos. I’m still a work in progress, (she says while sitting next to Mt. Laundry), but these are the apps that have helped me the most so far in this ongoing project that is my life!